Kevin Durant is one of the best players in the league, and there is no question that he is still a top-tier scorer in the NBA. He had a productive season with the Brooklyn Nets, averaging 29.9 PPG, 7.4 RPG, and 6.4 APG while shooting 38.3% from beyond the arc.
This offseason, Kevin Durant shook the NBA world by requesting a trade from the Brooklyn Nets. Despite that, the Brooklyn Nets have not moved him thus far, and some believe that the Nets are still hoping that Kevin Durant will retract his trade request.
Even before the Minnesota Timberwolves warped the trade market by flipping five draft assets for Rudy Gobert, several smart people around the league termed the very act of trading Durant “impossible” in conversations with ESPN. There was no way to approximate fair value. A player of Durant’s caliber with so many years locked in had never before become available.
The Nets are probably waiting for Durant’s camp to realize that, and maybe for Durant to retract his trade request. The Nets have not given up on this scenario, sources say.
A recent report by Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com has revealed that Kevin Durant will meet with Nets governor Joe Tsai this week about the situation. The report notes that it is unclear if the “intent of the meeting” is to try and mend the damaged relationship between Kevin Durant and the franchise.
“What I’m hearing is that KD is going to meet with the owner this week,” the source told Heavy Sports. “He’s going to go directly to the owner, Joe Tsai, sometime this week. We’ll see how that works.”
Whether the intent of the meeting is to smooth over a relationship that suffered at least a hairline fracture when Durant, with four years left on his contract, asked to be traded is uncertain.
“I don’t know,” said the exec. “I have no idea what’s going to come of that meeting. There are some things that KD is unhappy about, and I’m not sure any of that gets fixed here. But maybe it does.”
The Brooklyn Nets will hope that Kevin Durant is willing to give the franchise a chance to put a contender around him. Durant is the best player they’ve had on their franchise in a while, and he has shown previously that he can be the No. 1 option on a championship-caliber team with the Golden State Warriors.
Of course, the meeting could just result in Kevin Durant reiterating his desire to get traded from the franchise. But perhaps we’ll see Durant decide that he’s willing to return to the Brooklyn Nets, and we’ll have to wait to see what the outcome of that meeting will be.
